Since the Enduri Pitha week is on, we happened to chance upon several recipes and styles of cooking the pitha. The one that happened to catch our attention was a unique twist to the popular sweetmeat. One of our active members, Avinash Patnaik shared his recipe of Enduri Pitha with a Sushi Twist and we cannot keep calm!!

He prepared a “Sushi-Styled fish Enduri Pitha, with Date-Tomato-Chilly Jam”. He replaced the coconut and jaggery stuffing with fish and vegetables, and rolled the rice/black-gram paste in turmeric leaves. The jam he prepared is inspired from an Odia dish, tamatara khajuri khata (tangy chutney made of dates and tomatoes).

Here’s a detailed recipe from the chef himself!

INGREDIENTS

For the Jam-

2 ripe tomatoes
8-10 dates

1 Red dry chilly

1 Jaggery cube

2 tsp tamarind paste

Salt to taste

1 tsp rice bran oil

For Sushi-Styled Fish Enduri Pitha-

Rice and black gram batter
Bhekti (Barramundi fish- 5 pieces)
1 Carrot

Green Peas

2 Onions

6-7 Garlic cloves

Black pepper

1 tsp Cumin seeds

Rice Bran oil

Green Turmeric Leaves

COOKING PROCEDURE

STEP 1
Soak the dried red chilly and deseeded dates for 30 mins in water. Dice the tomatoes into pieces. Make a solution of 2 tsp of tamarind and little salt with water in a bowl & keep it aside. Make a thin paste of tomato, soaked chilly and dates in a blender. Now turn the gas on and add 1 tsp of oil to the cooking wok. Add the paste to it and saute. Add tamarind salt solution to it as well as the Jaggery cube.

STEP 2
Cook it till the consistency is thick like that of a sauce. Now turn off the gas and cool it. Date tomato chilly jam is ready.

STEP 3
Now for making the Enduri pitha and its stuffing, we need 5 pieces of bhekti fish since it has lesser spines. Clean it well with water, and then marinate with little salt for about 10 mins. Meanwhile, finely chop onion and garlic. Peel the carrot, and blanch peas and carrot for 10 mins for easier cooking. Let it cool. Grate the blanched peas and carrots. Dry roast pepper and cumin and make a coarse powder with a mortar pestle and keep it aside.

STEP 4
Heat a cooking wok, add 2 big bowls of water and a little salt to taste. Once it comes to boil, add the marinated fish to it. Cook it for 5-6 mins and strain it out on a plate. After it cools, mash it well and remove the spines. Heat a cooking wok. Add 3 tablespoonful of oil, add the finely chopped onion and garlic and saute till it becomes light brown in colour. Then add the mashed fish and saute it for 5 mins. Add mashed veggies and dry roasted pepper cumin powder and salt to taste.

STEP 5
Cook it well for another 5 mins and turn off the gas. The stuffing is ready. Allow it to cool.

STEP 6
Clean the green turmeric leaves and cut into 2 halves from the center. One can make a rice and black gram (without skin) batter by soaking and making thick paste in a blender. Used here, was a ready-to-cook batter available in the market to save time. Put a little batter on the leaf and flatten the same. Then put the required quantity of stuffing on the batter and fold the turmeric leaf lengthwise in such a way that the stuffing gets sandwiched between 2 layers of batter.

STEP 7
The prepared roll will be steamed traditionally, much like old Odia style. Take a wide-mouthed container fill it up to half with water. Then tie a muslin cloth tightly around it’s mouth. Carefully place the leaf containing stuffed batter on the cloth. Cover it with a concave-shaped lid.

STEP 8
Steam it till cooked. An indicator for the same could be the colour of turmeric leaf turning light brown. Go on steaming the pithas one after another. The delicate aroma of turmeric leaf is a special feature of the pitha.

STEP 9
Use a sharp knife to cut the pitha into pieces. Remove the turmeric leaves before eating. Relish your “Sushi-styled fish Enduri Pitha, with Date-Tomato-Chilly” jam. Tastes best when served hot!

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